Feronia Inc. plantations in DRC, a case of agro-colonialism, violate human and labor rights with no accountability and with the complicity of British, American and European development aid agencies.

Description

[En Français ci-dessous ] Under Belgian colonization, the communities of Lokutu, Yaligimba and Boteka were expropriated from their lands and forests without their consent in 1911 by the British company Les Frères Lever, for the cultivation of palm oil. For more than a century they have been denouncing the illegality of this occupation and demanding their restitution.

Feronia has bought and has been operating these three concessions since 2009. People have been asking Feronia for years to publish the documents that demonstrate their rights to these lands. Feronia has never done it. In July 2016, the affected communities were intimidated and imprisoned by a delegation of provincial authorities and local elected representatives. They were aiming at forcing them to sign the booklets which would legitimize Feronia for the continuation of the exploitations and their extension. The delegation abandoned the mission three days later as the communities refused to sign. These plantations, by depriving people from their sources of livelihood, have created conditions of extreme poverty. The monoculture of the palm tree has destroyed the diversity of fauna and flora of the forest. The caterpillars, people’s main source of protein, has almost disappeared together with fruit trees. The plantations also took over the lands traditionally intended for communities’ farming. In addition, the use of chemicals, such as the NPK fertilizer, is dangerous for the health of young people and children. RIAO-RDC blames this product for causing higher fish mortality as well as causing cases of diarrhea. Malnutrition has become a daily plague. The infant’s mortality rate and that of women during delivery child in the Feronia concessions is one of the highest in the Equator region.

People have no choice but to work in the plantations to survive. Yet, working for Feronia can be considered as a form of modern slavery as the company is accused of violating rights of the agricultural workers. Grain and RIAO-RDC have documented cases of employment contracts not mentioning a daily pay but a pay per work unit. That is illegal. Villagers in Yalifombo (Lokutu plantation) are expected to harvest between 80 and 120 palm nut sacks a day, workers at the trees nurseries must carry 600 bags of seedlings. That is humanly impossible but the worker is not paid at all for his working day if he does not achieve his daily unit of work. That's why their families, including children, come to help them. Most of the workers do not even have a work contract. Feronia does not make long-term contracts, as compelling by law and hires most of his workers as day laborers, depriving them of rights and benefits. Wages happen very often to be paid 3 or 4 months late. That’s how the workers get in debt at high rates, creating a debt servitude system.

These numerous violations of human and labor rights are all the more a scandal when one reminds that these plantations are financed by publicmoney supposed to target the reduction of poverty. Indeed, most of Feronia is financed and owned by European development aid agencies. These agencies violate the responsibilities they engaged through their investment codes. Thus the populations recall that there has been no improvement in their living conditions and still demand the construction of roads, health centers, schools. While the company says it does not enjoy a comfortable enough financial situation to build basic infrastructure and provide access to minimum social services, it has paid its four executives 1,000 times the annual salary of its farm workers. Moreover Grain’s and RIAO-DRC’s 2015 report highlighted a corruption scandal (see section 'Project Details'). Despite the publication of the first report in 2015 denouncing frauds diverting public money, the development aid agencies have increased their investment in Feronia’s project in 2016 for a total amount of 49 million US dollars! This aberration prompted Grain and RIAO-DRC to publish a second report in 2016. Uprisings happened already before Feronia acquired the plantations (Mokaria, 1997). Another episode of confrontations with the police took place in October 2014 in Lokutu, following the imprisonment of 4 workers by the Feronia industrial guards, accused of stealing palm nuts. The protesters demanded their release and accused the company of land grabbing. After being dispersed by the police, they blocked the access roads to the Lokutu plantation and suspended the work on the plantation for three days until the release of the prisoners. On March 8th 2015, a declaration was signed by more than 60 customary chiefs and other local leaders. The statement accuses Feronia of never asking for their permission to use community lands, claims their restitution and compensation for all the impacts suffered for a century. RIAO-DRC is actively sensitizing communities on their rights and for rendering Feronia accountable. Protests continue despite police repression.

Created by the Lever Brothers in 1911, the three palm oil concessions became property of Unilever when the Lever Brothers merged with United Margarine in 1930. The three plantations of Lokutu, Yaligimba and Boteka stretch over 100,000 hectares. Unilever operated its plantations through its Congolese subsidiary Plantations and Huleries du Congo (PHC), in which the Congolese State still holds a 20% stake. Since 2012, Unilever's shares in PHC have been owned by Feronia, bought for US $ 4 million. In 2012, only 15,000 hectares were in operation. Feronia also owns a palm oil processing unit in Boteka. Feronia is 68% owned by CDC, the UK Government's public development aid agency and 26% by the African Agricultural Fund (AAF). AAF is funded by many development aid agencies. In 2012, the French Development Agency invested in AAF 40 million dollars and the European Commission 12 million. Other agencies also finance the AFF such as the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, the Italian Cooperation Agency and the American development aid agency OPIC. The African Development Bank invested US$ 40 million in the AAF in 2012 [1]. Between March and November 2013, the AAF entered the capital of Feronia for a total amount of 14.5 million dollars. Between 2015 and 2016, while in the meantime the first report of Grain RIAO-DRC was published, four public agencies of development aid: the German DEG, the Dutch FMO, the Belgian BIO and the British EAIF lent US $ 49 millions to Feronia [2]. The 2015 Grain RIAO-DRC report sparked a corruption scandal in Feronia's management. A document proves the payment by Feronia of $ 3 million in cash and shares to Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi. The latter, a close associate of DRC President Kabila, was the ambassador of DRC in London between 2008 and 2014 and a member of Feronia's board until 2014. It is the subsidiary Feronia JCA who bought Unilever’s shares in PHC. Jean Colette Afrique Sprl, owned exclusively by Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi, held a 20% stake in Feronia JCA. Once the transaction with Unilever was concluded, Feronia Inc. bought back Kikaya's shares in Feronia JA in exchange of 8,894,344 shares of Feronia Inc.

Development of a network/collective action Development of alternative proposals Involvement of national and international NGOs Media based activism/alternative media Official complaint letters and petitions Public campaigns Street protest/marches

Claiming their lands back and compensations for the peasants and the communities for the years they suffered from agro-colonialism (Grain RIAO-RDC, 2015). Asking for the construction of schools, roads, hospitals, dams, decent housing and community centers (Grain-IRAO 2016) The communities' chiefs from Yahuma consider the possibility to renegotiate a contract with the company after receiving compensation (meeting in March 2015).

One Hundred Years Later, Reviving a ‘Jewel’ Deep in the Jungle. An obscure company’s quest to rebuild a century-old business could lead to the British stock exchange. Thomas Wilson, 15 September 2017[click to view]